VEGFA and rheumatoid arthritis: Artemisinin and derivatives have also been shown to exert anti-angiogenic activities in RA, acting as inhibitors of angiogenesis-related factors such as matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) [196,200].